Death, Spiders, and Blue Hair
by Art n' Music
Summary: After the Beldam incident, Coraline thought everything will go back to normal. but then she finds her arms can change into futuristic guns, a monster kills her family, and she meets a boy who is Death's son. Now the two destroy evil humans and a few witches and find out what its like to love. But that can be hard when madness is trying to take over her.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: What is happening?**

On every TV all over the world, the usual shows and movies everyone is busy watching get pre-empted. Now on the screen is a woman in a gray suit behind a desk, holdings a small stack of papers. When she speaks, it's translated to different languages, "Good afternoon. As of 5:23 p.m. yesterday, the president has gotten reports of four strange boys and girls fighting a monster in the town of Las Vegas, Nevada. Many witnesses have stated that two of the four started glowing then transformed into weapons." Halfway through her talk, the TV shows a video of a fight between two Meisters with their weapons and an evil human. The screen turns back to the woman who continues, "These kids, who we now know them as Meisters thanks to an outside source, have destroyed many buildings. Further investigations revealed that many civilians were killed gruesomely in the vicinity.

"There have also been many more reports before of a monster battling kids who transform into weapons and women who seem to have power that baffles even the top scientists. We now classify them as the legend's namesake, Witch.

"At 9:25 a.m. last morning, the United Nation has agreed that these Meisters, human weapons, and humanoid monsters are a threat to the world and must be dealt with immediately. Soon after the agreement, Congress has passed down a law that all Meisters and human weapons will be discriminated and immediately dealt with armed force. Any sightings of these threats anywhere in the world will need to be reported to armed forces. We thank you for your time." The camera turns off and returns to the regularly scheduled program.

The group in front of one TV is the Meisters and their weapons, Maka and Soul, Black Star and Tsubaki, Death the Kid and the twins, Liz and Patty, along with the leader Death, Spirit Albarn, and Professor Stein, all slack-jawed except for Death and Stein.

Soul breaks the silence and says, "We're in trouble."

* * *

In the rainy state of Oregon, a girl with dyed blue hair walks around the dreary forest, wearing a large, yellow raincoat, striped jeans, and yellow rain boots. Coraline hums a little tune her dad made when she was a little girl, looking at the different trees she has come familiarized with after three years. She stops at the only clearing in the forest and sits on a stump, enjoying the cool, humid breeze of summer vacation. But it was short-lived. Soon, she thinks of what happened last night.

Last night, she had a dream that was weirder and scarier than her adventure three years ago. The girl is walking through a city that looks normal, but has spooking wire fences and signs and there's a rounded, almost comical skull everywhere. The roofs are red and the walls were either a bluish or a kind of tan color, and the road is made of cobblestone. But the weirdest thing of the town is the moon surrounded by a blue sky dotted with white. It's a crescent with an eye, a pointy, and a maniacal grin that seems to be dripping with red. Coraline hopes it's not blood.

While she walks through the strange city, her arms ache slightly for some odd reason, making her rub it over and over again. She quickly gets annoyed and lifts up her sleeves to check them, but finds them normal. But the ache continues as she explores the town.

The blue-haired girl scans the area, looking for anyone else that could be living in this town, but the place seems to be a ghost town. Can't handle the silence anymore, the girl cups her hands around her mouth and shouts, "Hello? Anyone here? Helloooo?"

As she predicted, no one appeared. She growls and rubs her arms again before resuming her travel. The windows on the buildings show Coraline's reflection clearly, as if a Coraline copy is on the other side walking along with her. She stops at one large window and looks at herself. Her blue hair is all messy and falls down in front of her eyes, some brown specks of dirt patterning it. Her simple clothing is all rumpled and dirty, and her eyes look tired and…frightened? It's almost like she's on the opposite side of a battle. She thinks, _But why? _

Suddenly, the reflection ducks her head so her hair covers up her eyes, making the blue-haired girl take a step closer in curiosity. When her reflected self finally lifts her head, it shows the girl three snake-like eyes with round pupils and a demented grin, and Coraline scream and jump away. She sprints away from the image and doesn't stop until the window is kilometers away. When the girl stops, she's surprised to not find herself bent down and breathing hard, but then again it is a dream.

She looks around the town again and finds a tall castle in the middle, comical skulls and spikes decorating the place and XXXXXL, lit candles around. The girl tilts her head a little in admiration and says, "That's kind of cool. I wonder who built it."

Coraline looks away from the castle and gasps, seeing a man covered in scarves head-to-toe, the scarves acting like a skirt and four of them floats behind his back, looking like blockish hands. The most frightening thing is the three eyes on the scarf wrapped around his head. The same ones she saw on her reflection. The girl steps back but the man doesn't move. "Who are you?" she asks nervously.

The man finally moves his head up and the scarf splits open, revealing Coraline's pale face and three red eyes, one in the middle of her forehead. The real Coraline shivers and slowly walks back. Suddenly, the scarves on his, or her, back suddenly shoot toward the frightened girl. She screams and raises her hands up, which both are now shooters, to start firing light blue energy at the scarves. They tear the attacking limbs to threads and head straight for the demented doppelganger, making her disappear behind a cloud. The blue-haired girl finally stops her firing and stares at the cloud, oblivious of the smoke rising from the barrels of her gun-hands. When the large cloud dissipates, she finds the scary man has disappeared. She sighs and relaxes her muscles until a new voice speaks. "You are quite powerful."

Coraline points her guns at the voice and sees a brownish-green snake sitting on a barrel. She looks around the area for the voice when the snake says in a feminine voice, "Hard to believe the DWMA hasn't found you yet."

"Who are you?" Coraline asks.

"That is not of importance right now," it answers, "The real question is what are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"About your souls?" it hisses before striking with extended fangs, making Coraline wake up. That's what got her to take a walk through the forest. So she can try and forget the dream but it keeps coming back. So she decides to try and make sense of it, but with little success.

"What does it mean? What's this DWMA? What does the snake mean about my souls? Well, it probably meant my spirit, but more than one? That makes no sense. Everyone only has one spirit."

A spider crawls nearby and Coraline shrieks in surprise but scowls before squishing it. She then goes back to her dream. "Who was that creepy man with the scarves? Or…was he me? Maybe it means nothing at all. It was a dream after all."

"So, are you done mumbling to yourself? Or do I need to give you some more time alone?"

The blue-haired girl looks at the trees and finds her only friend in Oregon, Wybie Lovat. A boy with thick, messy hair, bad posture, and always wears black jeans, boots, gloves, and an old fireman jacket. His suped-up bicycle is leaning against one tree nearby. She scoffs and says, "Nice to see you too, Wyborne."

He walks over to his friend and asks, "So what are you mumbling about?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just a dream I had last night. None of it made any sense."

"Well, it is a dream. They never make any sense."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she agrees, but Wybie can still tell she's distracted. "Something still bugging your mind?"

"It's something in my dream. When I was fighting this…thing, my arms turned to guns and fired a weird blue energy. It was really freaky but, kind of cool. Kinda wish I really had it."

"Sorry, but like I said before, it was a dream. Nothing in a dream is ever real."

"Thank you, Mr. Party-Pooper."

A trunk cracking to pieces echoes across the forest, making the two teens freeze. Wybie shivers uncontrollably and looks around the place for the noise. "C-Coraline, w-what was that?" he stutters.

"I don't know," she answers, "But let's find out."

"Let's not and say we did."

"What's wrong? You scared?" she asks, smirking.

"Uh, yes."

Another crack rings, this time sounding closer, and the geeky boy screams and jumps behind the blue-haired girl. Another trunk breaks apart and this time the two actually see the tree fall in the shadow. Now Coraline's a little scared. "Okay, I don't mind ignoring it," she mutters. The two friends start walking back home but then a whole tree falls in front of them. They shriek at the sudden appearance and Wybie says, "We were almost flattened."

"Gee, thanks Captain Obvious."

A snarl behind them alerts the two of an unwelcomed presence and the friends stiffly turn around. Coraline's eyes widen and she's left speechless.

Walking out of the forest is something human, but looks far from it. Shark teeth riddle the man's mouth, his greasy hair is dark red and covers half of his face, and his body is leathery gray and slinky, making him about nine or ten feet tall, but since he's bending down, it only makes him about six feet. His bony arms have blades sticking out of them and his fingers are super long talons and his extended feet. All he wears is a loincloth and as black tattoos lining all over his chest.

Wyborne starts whimpering in fright and walking back, but the blue-haired teenager doesn't make a move to run. The beast stares at the two teens and a long, dark-red tongue licks his lips. "Mmm, you look like a tasty bunch of souls," it whispers, making a squeak around the word 'tasty'.

"T-t-tasty?" the bad-postured boy repeats in fear.

"Yes." He jumps at the two with poised talons but Coraline reacts and pushes her friend out of danger before jumping away herself. The monster misses them but strikes in the girl's direction, scratching her waist. She gasps and clutches her wound, momentarily forgetting the homicidal maniac about to gut her like a fish. But before he strikes, a rock hits him on the head, and he turns to find the shaking boy holding another rock and a large stick. "L-leave her alone!" he orders, throwing the other rock. It bounces harmlessly off the creature's head and he shrieks at the boy, making him drop the stick and run screaming. The monster gives chase and swipes at the boy's heels, making him trip. On the ground, Wybie stumbles away but the beast grabs him and raises him eye-level, slobber dripping from his fangs. The boy screams as the teeth come closer but Coraline runs up with a thick branch and smacks the monster's face with so much force it makes him stumble back and the branch snap to pieces. The monster looks at the girl with annoyance and she shouts, "Put him down! NOW!"

He growls and smacks the girl, sending her flying over the trees.

"Coraline!" Wyborne shouts but then looks back at the humanoid beast when it growls. "I'll come back for you later," it rumbles before throwing the boy and tracks down the girl. One of his arm blades slices a tree and it starts tipping toward the dazed boy.

Meanwhile, the blue-haired girl screams while she soars through the air. All the while, she thinks of what that thing was. And what he said earlier. "_Tasty bunch of souls" _is what confuses her. _What does he mean? How can you eat souls?_ She didn't have much time to think when suddenly her body connects with something hard and she crashes right through. A few seconds later, she figures it's the Pink Palace and she crashed right into the kitchen, where her now-shocked parents are. "Uuugghh," she moans, slowly lifting her body up.

"Coraline?" her mother gasps. "Why…how…what are you doing crashing through the window?"

"Human…monster," she groans.

"Human what now?" her father asks.

They turn to the destroyed window when they hear a growl, and find the bladed monster. The daughter points and mutters, "That."

The humanoid beast looks at the two adults and hisses, "Well, looks like I hit the jackpot of souls."

Mel grabs a broom and points it at the monster like a spear. "Who-whoever, or whatever, you are, I want you out of here now!"

The thing bites off most of the broom, leaving the mother a small stick. She looks at the beast with fear and, when the beast roars in her face, she screams and walks away, toward her daughter. The monster walks toward the two when Charlie gets him in the way. "Stop right there, monster. You will not harm my family."

"You two are starting to get on my nerves. Maybe I should kill you first," the creature says. He raises a hand and swipes at the father, but Coraline pushes him away while shouting, "No!" The claws slash the teenager, creating four new marks on her waist and arm and sending her crashing through another wall. She crashes in the living room, where her adventure started with the little door.

"Coraline!" Her mother hurries to her only daughter and checks her wounds, which are dripping blood. "Don't worry. We'll call a hospital."

"It's too late for that."

The two turn to the hole Coraline made and find the monster walking in, Charlie in his bloodied hands. "She's already a goner. But don't worry. If her soul is as tasty as the man's, then all would not have been for vain." He tosses the father to the side and the injured girl sees a bloody gash across his chest. "No," she whimpers.

"Charlie!" Mel shouts and starts running toward him, but the monster throws a hand and creates fatal wounds on the woman. She crashes into the chimney and it falls apart, pinning her on the ground.

"No. Mom!" The blue-haired girl tries to get up but stumbles because of her gashes. The beast chuckles at her futile efforts and whispers, "Oh, isn't that sweet. I hate sweet. Now, I think it's time to finish you off for good." He picks up the fatigued face of Mel with a claw, when the daughter huffs, "Get away from my mother."

The killer turns back to the teenager, who got on her feet and has her head down, making her hair cover her eyes. He grins and says, "So the baby girl got the energy to stand. Too bad all you can do is watch your parents disappear." He picks up the woman up despite the bricks and licks some blood off her face. Coraline snarls and commands again, "Leave my mother alone!" Newfound energy boils inside her veins and charges her body beyond capacity. She raises her hands and suddenly metal grows on her arms into two silver guns with curved spikes embedded on the sides moving toward the barrels. The inside of the barrels start humming and a bright blue glow appears, and the blue-haired girl aims them at the surprised monster. "I think it's time for you to leave. Permanently!" At the last word, two beams shoot out of her guns and catch the surprised humanoid monster, making him disappear in blue light. The beam destroys a part of the wall and continues on, leaving behind an inhuman shriek, either from the weapon or the beast. When the light dies, Coraline smiles a little under her hair, but when she raises her head, the smile vanishes and she looks at her changed hands, fright slowly rising in her eyes. She lets her arms collapses on the ground from the weight and starts whimpering in fright. She looks at her mother, who has a confused and scared look on her bloodied face. The teenager looks back at her arms and shakes her head, repeating "No. no, no,no," in disbelief. She looks at her fading mother and sees confusing and a little fright on her bloodied face. She starts crying silently and runs out through the large whole, entering into the gloomy rain of the world.

After darting through the sodden forest, the blue-haired girl stops and looks at her hands again, which haven't changed. She collapses onto her knees and starts sobbing her horror out. She moves her head up to the moon and finds it has changed. The half-moon turned into a crescent with a pointy nose, a withered eye, and a maniacal grin drooling blood. Coraline sniffles and screams to it, "What is happening to me!?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: A Slippery Meeting**

Rain rapidly pours down from the dark gray clouds and patters all over Seattle, Washington. Very few people brave enough to trek the onslaught walks through town with umbrellas, hurriedly finishing any unfinished business. No one would expect anybody to leisurely walk around the dismal place, but one boy about seventeen, wearing a black hat with a skull, sunglasses despite how dark it is, and a black cloak, strolls around the city, ignorant of the large drops beating all over him. The boy takes a turn into an alley that's less bombarded by rain and sits against a wall. He takes off his hat and glasses, revealing golden eyes and shadow-black hair with three horizontal white stripes that stop in the middle of his head. He sighs as his exhausted body finally relaxes from all his walking and walking into the world that want him dead. "What has become of this world?" he mutters, placing his tired face in his hand. His stomach grumbles loudly, breaking his train of thought. The Shinigami sighs again and rises back on his feet, replacing his glasses and hat. Before he returns to the city, a bossy voice stops him from behind. "Stop right there, kid."

Rolling his eyes in annoyance, he thinks, _This is getting ridiculous_. He slowly turns around with a bored expression. _Maybe I should stop camping in alleyways._

Walking out of the shadows is a large man that looks like he hasn't shaved in months and his greasy hair almost touches his shoulder. He wears a thick brown coat and slightly bleached jeans with worn boots. In his hand is a gun he most likely stole. And the smell of garbage coming off of him is pretty intoxicating, which greatly bothers Kid. But he tries to ignore the smell and asks calmly, "What do you want?"

The hobo laughs and repeats, "What do I want? It's pretty simple. I want all the valuables you have in your pockets. Oh yeah, I'd like the glasses, too. They would look great on me."

"Well, I don't have any money but I will gladly give you my sunglasses if you have any food on you."

The homeless man stares at him with confusion, perplexed on his arrangement and his composure. But he ignores it and returns his black toothy smirk. "Heh heh, real funny kid. Since you don't have anything on you, then you'll die." He shoots the bullets at the boy but he merely sidesteps all of them until he jumps behind the hobo. With him surprised, Kid makes a well-defined blow on his back, making the man fall like a bag of bricks. After making sure he doesn't get up, the reaper picks up his gun and asks, "You don't happen to have another one, do you?"

The hobo merely squeaks in response. The son of Death sighs and throws the gun away then heads back out into the rain, putting the hat back on since it fell off when he jumped behind the hobo. But not before rummaging the man's pockets for some money. Now with some cash in-hand, he walks into a nearby coffee shop and stops at a counter where a brown-skinned woman wearing a Starbucks uniform stands. After ordering a cup of hot chocolate and a blueberry muffin, the Shinigami heads to one empty booth next to a window and sits, checking to see if his hat and glasses cover his unusual traits. Soon, the woman calls his order and he goes to receive them. Once back in his seat, he starts eating while thinking of his new lifestyle. _Always running. Forever hiding from the people around us. For two whole years, I've been dodging them all so I can live. That's not how anyone should live, yet me and the other Meisters and Weapons have to. Every day, I have to scrape just to survive and I have to sleep in the most horrible places. Grimy, rotten, and completely asymmetrical down to the last cracks! Uh, I sure wish Liz and Patty were here. They know how to live on the streets; maybe they could've taught me a few lessons. Then again, it's because of them I'm running from state to state,_ he thinks sadly.

"Hey," someone says, disrupting Kid's thinking. He looks up at a man who asks, "Are you going to eat that muffin?"

Looking back down, Kid sees that he's just holding his half-eaten muffin in the same spot. He answers, "Yes, I will."

"Okay, just checking." The man walks out of the shop and the Shinigami resumes eating. When he's finished eating, not having any crumbs on the table, he grabs his hot chocolate and also walks out. He sips every once in a while and looks around. On a few buildings, he spots some splotches of dark red, most likely blood from unfortunate victims to the evil humans that are running amok more than usual.

For some reason, ever since the government forbade Meisters and their weapons, more evil humans have been created and appearing. Now you can see more of them at night and even during the day time. His father is being overwhelmed with the surplus of evil humans back at his academy, the last Kid heard. _Most likely because more humans have become fearful of us and wants to do anything to overpower us,_ Kid thinks. _Killing innocent people so they can feed on their souls. Why don't they learn that their actions have a steep consequence? _

He stops in the middle of the road, feeling something different in the atmosphere. He looks around the area but doesn't find anyone on the soaked grounds. The Shinigami decides it might be a soul so he takes off his glasses and activates Soul Perception. The town darkens swiftly and at certain spots, he sees small glowing blue orbs, mostly inside buildings. Human souls taking cover to keep from getting wet. Kid scans around and finds more souls along with some red souls with scales here and there, informing him of Evil Humans. The reaper doesn't see anything strange in the town. Just as he was about to shut off his power, the reaper feels another wave and he snaps to his right. Inside an alley, he spots a soul that looks slightly different from the rest. It looks larger than a normal soul and the color is a darker blue. "What?" Kid turns off his perception and looks at where he saw the soul. In the alley is a girl that looks like fifteen or sixteen in tattered, old clothing that look a little small. She has her head hidden behind her legs and her arms wrap around them, covering her face more. The Shinigami can see a mess of long hair that's dark blue with some spots of brown. He doesn't know if their dirt or hair color. Her shoulders are shuddering; Kid guesses she might be crying.

Curious on whom she is, based on her unique soul, he turns toward the distraught girl and calls calmly, "Hey."

The girl flicks her head up and gasps, showing her misty, red eyes. They widen when she spots the black-clad boy and quickly scampers down the alley, disappearing around a bend.

"Wait!" the Shinigami shouts before chasing after her. He follows around the bend and has enough time to see the girl's foot just before it vanishes around the building. Kid hurries back onto the rainy street and looks around, but finds that the girl has vanished. Confused, he looks around the place more closely, seeing if there are any shadows or passageways he missed before, but to no avail. Apparently, the girl vanished without a trace. "How is that possible?"

He looks around once more before sighing in defeat, walking down the road once again. The reaper looks up to the smoky gray clouds that keep pouring rain like a leaky faucet everywhere. "Does this rain ever stop and actually show the sun?"

While he walks through town, and catching some confused looks from spectators, Death the Kid could not get his mind away from the girl. Her unusual soul intrigues him and he wants to figure out why. Not to mention the weird energy pulse he sensed earlier. No normal soul is anything like the blue-haired female. She's most likely a special person, like him. She could be a Meister or maybe a weapon. Though, if those talents surfaced, Kid wonders how she survived this long. Not many Meisters can live for three months outside of the DWMA, Death Weapon Meister Academy. Kid only survived this long because he's a Shinigami.

The reaper gasps out of his reverie when he senses something different. Another energy wave appears, but this time it feels more powerful to Kid, feeling like a tsunami. The first idea that pops in his mind for something this powerful is a witch. He activates Soul Perception and looks around, finding an exceptionally large, dark purple soul not too far from where the reaper stands now. As he heads toward the soul, he notices something bizarre about the witch's soul. It seems to pulse at an irregular pace and once in a while has a spasm, as if unstable. But Kid doesn't worry about it too much. A witch soul still means witch, and even if he's not part of the DWMA anymore, it's his job as a Shinigami to keep a witch in-check.

The Shinigami runs up a wall and jumps onto the roof. He continues hopping from roof to roof, coming closer to the witch's soul. He soon stops at one ceiling when he senses something, or rather nothing. He turns Soul Perception back on and looks around, but finds that the witch's soul has vanished. He growls and mutters, "She must've activated Soul Protect. Damn." After reverting back to his normal vision, the reaper guesses where the soul might be and swiftly heads to the destination, stopping at the edge of a different building and looking down. What he saw made him gasp.

The girl he saw earlier is surrounded by a group of seven goons. He'd recognize the blue and brown hair anywhere. The goons start closing in on her, holding a variety of weapons from knives to a broken bottle. But Kid doesn't see any sign of the witch. Maybe his guess was wrong and she's nearby. But Kid has more pressing matters. The group of men, which the reaper highly despises because of their asymmetrical number, takes another step closer and the one holding the knife places it against the girl's neck. The reaper can't hear anything but he guesses they're going to mug her, so he was about to interject when a shocking sight beholds them.

The girl looks at the knife-wielding man and smiles. At the same time, Kid senses another large energy wave except it's coming from the girl and, after examining her soul, sees it's like a regular soul, except larger and more temperamental. Cracks run across the soul's surface, spikes decorate along the bottom of it and the top is nothing but a blazing inferno of fire. Every once in a while the soul convulses, puzzling the Shinigami.

Suddenly, to everyone's astonishment, the blue-brown-speckled-haired girl's lower arms glow a dark blue. It stretches out and morphs into something round with a cylinder hanging on the bottom. The light explodes and exposes what was underneath: a long silver barrel of a gun with slightly curved teeth facing forward down the barrel. Kid stifles a gasp, realizing now what she is. "No wonder her soul looks unique," he whispers, "She's a weapon."

At the sight of her gun-arms, the goons hastily take a few steps back and the knife wielder shouts, "She's one of those Weapon freaks! Get her!"

Two of his comrades rush to intercept her, but the girl knocks the air out of the nearest with the side of the gun and punches the other guy in the face with the front. Three thugs try to jump her but she twirls up with outstretched hands and knocks all of them out in mid-air. The trio smashes on the ground like a bag of bricks but the blue-haired girl lands elegantly on her feet, her guns lightly resting against the dirt. The sixth goon roars with a metal bat but the girl swings down on the bat and bends it before swinging her gun across his face. The leader stares dumbfounded at the weak-looking girl, stunned at her abnormal strength, but then roars and charges. He swings his knife at her face but she swiftly raises one gun up to act like a shield, and the blade snaps off the hilt upon contact. The brute stares at the handle in disbelief then looks at the girl, whimpering when he saw the disturbing grin on her face. He tries to make a run for it when the Weapon knocks his feet off the ground and sticks the gun against his stomach and fires. Blue light envelops the two, leaving them only as silhouettes to Kid. But he is able to see a liquid coming out of the backside of the goon. The reaper gasps when he realizes what it was.

When the blue light disappears, Kid sees the thug on the ground, unmoving, the girl standing like a statue, and a floating, light-blue orb with a tail swishing on the top. When the goons finally wake up and spot their leader on the ground ringed with blood, they all panic and hurry out of their home. The Weapon ignores them completely. After her arms revert back to normal, she grabs hold of the human soul and the Shinigami's hands grip the brick hard, turning almost white. Thinking of a horrible idea, he jumps on the stone fence and gets ready to go and stop her when she falls on the ground onto her knees and digs a small hole in the ground. Curious, he stays standing and watches with astonishment as the girl lowers the soul into the ground and buries it.

Kid is completely stunned of the lone female. He mutters, "Now why would she kill a man so mercilessly one minute but ignore the others and bury his soul instead of eating it the next?" Now that he's not completely distracted, he notices that the energy wave he felt earlier is gone and her soul has shrunk with only two curved spines and five barbs below. The reaper looks closer and notices her posture is different than earlier. He tries to get a closer look at the atypical Weapon but, since he forgot about the rain soaking him and the roof, his foot slips and he takes an unintended freefall down the building. He bounces off a rusty fire escape and crashes into discarded cardboard boxes on the ground. Kid groans and stumbles around the boxes and notices that light seem to have abandoned him. He reaches to soothe his headache and finds a rough wall blocking his head, making him realize he's wearing a box on his head. And he finally realizes what happened a few seconds ago and where he is right now. Kid gingerly raises the cardboard hat so he can see the alleyway and the shaken girl with the blue hair, who is standing a few feet in front of him and staring with large brown eyes. The Shinigami chuckles uneasily and waves a hand, muttering, "Uh, hi."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Starting a Meeting with a fall**

_How long has it been? Five weeks? Three months? Two years since I've been completely alone? I just can't tell anymore._

Rain falls into Seattle like tears from a distraught god. Only a few people hurriedly walk through the city, finishing works that were slightly delayed by the rain. The only place that isn't assailed are the thin alleyways hobos take cover in, some crowding around a small fire fueled by cardboard, papers, and other garbage from the huge dumpsters nearby.

_It's been so long since I was with people. People who care. People who love. I…I don't know what love is anymore. I think I lost my heart when I lost my humanity._

One person, walking irregularly down the sidewalk, is a lone girl with disarray of blue hair, her dye starting to fade and showing spots of her original brown hair, her clothes shabby and thin, so she's at the mercy of the icy cold rain and wind. She trips but quickly rights her footing and hugs herself to keep warm, with little success.

_Why do I, of everyone else in the world, have to be cursed? Ever since I obtained this horrible ability, my life became nothing but a mess. I've been having spasm attacks and blackouts, and that only led me to fear everything. I'm scared of people; I'm scared of myself; and I'm especially scared of that little voice in my head. She's…she's making me…into a monster. Murmuring me to kill everyone around me._

Coraline Jones looks at one person walking on the other side of the road, holding an umbrella to keep dry from the rain. _Tempting me to eat those blue orbs that come from dead people she calls 'Souls'. She says I'll be more powerful if I eat them. So powerful I will forget all my fears. But is it right? Eating people's souls just seems wrong. Then again, I don't know what's right or wrong anymore. Everything looks unreal now. Maybe I should eat the souls. But what if it kills me? Maybe it won't and it will give me power or better, return me to normal. But what if it doesn't and I'm forever a freak of the world? _Coraline starts chuckling eccentricallyand growing a crazy look on her face, eyes and grin wide. She stumbles into an alley and falls on the wall, sliding down while chuckling even more and getting a few weird looks from bystanders.

While she goes through her insane phase, visions of her past life replays in the unsteady girl's mind, showing everything she has feared. Showing when she learned of her family moving, to her fight with the Beldam, to when she discovered her curse. The girl gasps when she remembers the day she first killed a person. That was when she heard the little voice in her head. It tempted her to eat the soul, saying it will wash away all her fears and give her unimaginable powers. The girl was so tempted that she hoisted the orb to her mouth, so close she can practically lick it. She stopped when second-thoughts interrupted her. The traumatized girl lowered the orb and looked sadly at it. The voice persuaded her even more to eat the soul but the blue-haired female ignored it as best as she can and looked at the ground. She dug a small hole in the soft brown dirt and set the soul inside. After moving the dirt back on top of it, the Weapon got up and ran away from the murder scene.

After two years of running and hiding, Coraline now sits in an alleyway in Seattle, feeling all her fears and guilts piling up on her shoulders. It overloads her mind and she moves to a fetal position, crying into her legs. All her fears travel through her mind and into the tears, which pours and drops onto either her leg or the ground. "Why-y?" she sobs. "Why does it have to be me? Why?"

She cries even more and whispers, "Please, someone make it all disappear. Make it all into a nightmare where I wake up and it all disappears."

"Hey," someone calls, shocking the distraught teen. She gasps and turns to the voice on the street. She finds a tall boy in a black cloak, wearing a skull hat and sunglasses and staring right at her. Not wanting him to get hurt by her, Coraline swiftly climbs back on her feet and runs down the alley. She turns around into another alley and rushes out to the street. Thinking quickly, she runs into a store and hurries into the back room. After falling through the back door into another alley, the Weapon finally stops and leans against a wall to catch her breath. Surprisingly, it doesn't take long for her breathing to return to normal. Coraline walks out back into the streets and strolls down the downcast road, hugging herself again. _When will my torment end? It's just so distressing. I have to exclude myself from everyone so they won't get hurt, but yet I just need someone to care for me. I can't survive on my own for long! Sooner or later, I'll break and become something I never want to be. But if I hang around someone, I'll just end up killing them instead. I can never forgive myself if I murdered a friend._

Suddenly, she freezes spontaneously and starts shuddering, feeling electricity lapping up and down her body. Her brown eyes start glowing purple like orbs as she heads into another spasm attack. The teenage girl stumbles with the minimal movement she has into an alley and falls on the ground, twitching frenziedly as more shockwaves pass through. She feels like something inside of her is clashing viciously, sending raw power coursing to every part of her body. And this one feels extremely potent than the others. The Weapon stiffly and slowly pulls herself back up on the wall but plummets back on the ground. She can't breathe no matter how hard she tries. Her mind is full of nothing but pain. If the spasm doesn't end soon, Coraline feels like she's going to explode. Suddenly, after what feels like hours though she doesn't know, she gasps and fresh, rainy air finally enters her lungs. While taking deep breaths, her purple eyes fade back into normal brown pupils. After making sure another attack doesn't come, the blue-haired girl climbs back on her legs shakily and leans heavily against the wall. Her whole body trembles along with her breathing as the aftereffects takes hold.

After resting, she tests her legs' stability and starts walking a little wobbly toward the exit of the alley when two men block her way. Confused, she turns around and finds five other men appearing around her. All of them are holding assorted weapons in their hands, the most bizarre one a broken bottle being held by the neck.

"Lookie here, gents," one goon says. Coraline turns around slowly to the man holding a knife. "A baby bunny has hopped into the crocodile's nest."

Everyone laughs at his metaphor but the Weapon doesn't find it amusing. In fact, she's kind of scared now. "I don't mean any trouble, okay? Just let me pass and I'll get out of your home." She starts walking away but one goon pushes her back, making her stumble and fall. Everyone laughs again while the girl gets back up and she turns back to the leader. "Sorry, girlie," he says, "but once you're in our domain, there's only one key out of it and that's green and red."

The crowd steps closer around the helpless girl while she asks, "What are those?"

"Well money, of course, but also your blood." He grins maniacally, walking even closer to Coraline. She looks at the blade with fearful eyes when the voice appears again. In a silky, feminine voice, it says, _"You know what's coming, Coraline. If you don't decide now, you'll die."_

"_But I don't want to become a monster," _The teenager says back.

"_You won't become a monster. But you need power. And to get power, you need my help."_

Her head ducks down, keeping her eyes hidden from all of the goons around her. The leader goon chuckles and says, "Too scared to look at us now?" He sets the knife against the girl's neck. "Does that mean you don't have any money? If that's the case then you will have to pay with a lot of blood."

"_Decide now, Coraline. Let me help you to gain power, or die."_

The blue-haired girl thinks quickly and then says to the voice, _"Alright. You can help me. But whether I want power or not is my choice alone."_

The Weapon can feel the distaste of the voice when she finished but it mutters, _"Alright then."_

She looks up at the leader and grins, making him raise an eyebrow. Everything suddenly seems to fade in her mind and now she can't feel her body. She can see but it's like watching through a hazy window. All she can make out is a lot of vague shouting, people falling on the ground, and a flash of blue light. And all is quiet. The voice appears again and says, _"Now, choose what you must do."_

Everything returns to Coraline. All her senses come back, her vision sharpens, and sound floods into her mind. When she finally registers her surroundings, the blue-haired girl looks down and gasps, seeing the man she most likely killed surrounded by his blood. Another guilt weight is placed on her shoulder, one out of many. She hears some gasping and stumbling behind her but she ignores them, more focused on the blue soul floating above the fatal injury. The Weapon grabs the soul and stares at it with heartrending eyes, feeling herself being tempted again. But she ignores it with every fiber and instead kneels down. She digs a small hole and buries the soul, since she doesn't know what to do with them. Besides what the little voice tempts her to do with the souls.

Coraline places her hands on her lap and gives the buried orb a moment of silence. She sighs and murmurs, "I'm sorry. I never wanted any of this to happen."

The gun Weapon gets up and was about to walk back into Seattle when a loud, metallic crash startles her and she twists around faster than drill. She sees a man fall out of nowhere and crash into a pile of boxes, momentarily vanishing from view. The boxes topple and the black-clad man reappears, stumbling over the cardboards to try and get his footing back. She would laugh at the sight but since it all happened in an instant, she's still in shock. After a while, the man stops struggling and lifts the box that fell on his head up. He looks up at Coraline, showing his golden eyes, and grins sheepishly. He mutters, "Uh, hi."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Someone that Helps**

Coraline and Kid stare at each other, one standing and frightened; the other sitting in a pile of boxes while wearing a box hat. The teens don't move an inch, as if time has stopped. After a minute or so, the blue-haired teen takes a step back and the Shinigami recognizes the movement. He quickly stumbles to get up and orders, "Wait," but she hurries out. The reaper finally gets on his feet and chases after her. He finds the girl running into another alley. "Wait! I just want to talk!" He groans and also rushes into the alley. When he stops at a fork, he looks around to spot the girl running across the road and into a different alley. "This is getting tiring." Instead of continuing following the weird girl in the maze of Seattle, Death the Kid climbs onto the roof nearby the alleyway and activates Soul Perception. After a quick search and finding the distinctive soul, he pursues it by hopping from roof-to-roof.

The girl keeps crisscrossing all over the city, using mostly alleyways to run, but once in a while heads into a store and comes out the back way. But Kid is always on her tail, having free reign on the roofs of the city. He knows sooner or later the girl will make a wrong move and that's where he'll confront her.

The reaper continues jumping on roofs, continuing following the blue-haired girl for a few hours. At some point, his legs get tired so he brings out his skateboard Beelzebub and activates its flight mode.

After another few hours of running, Coraline takes a turn and stops in front of a dead end, and Kid smiles. He stops on the building, recalls his skateboard, and jumps down in the entrance of the alley, landing elegantly on the dirt. The girl gasps and turns around, wide eyes radiating uncontrollable fear.

"It's alright. I just want to talk," he says while walking up to her. Unfortunately, he gets a little too close and the Weapon socks him in the gut before flipping him over her shoulder. When he crashes in the mud, she makes a dash for it but this time the Shinigami is ready and he gets up fast to catch her. On the road, Kid finally reaches the girl and tackles her down, accidently getting them both a few small scrapes. They struggle but Kid assures, "I'm not going to hurt you!"

"I know!" she shouts, finally freeing from the pale teen and backing up. "I just don't want to hurt you!"

"What?" The reaper asks. But the girl tries to make another run only this time Kid is ready. Getting back up, he rushes after her and grabs her arm, making her stop. She turns back and aims to punch Kid but he grabs it in his hand. So Coraline instead grabs the hand with her other one, which is still being held by the Shinigami, and throws him around. He let's go and lands on his feet, sliding a little on the wet ground.

"Please, just stay away. I…I don't want you on my list of murders," the blue-haired girl says.

"Wha…? You can't kill me even if you wanted to. Besides, I saw what you can do."

If her eyes can widen even more then they would. She whispers, "You…you saw me…change?"

"Yes, but don't worry. It's completely normal for people like you."

"No it's not!" Coraline suddenly shouts, shocking Kid. "There is nothing normal about…about this!" Her arms glow blue and morph into guns. "I'm a freak of nature! Everyone in this city wants to kill me. The whole world wants to kill me!"

To her surprise, the Shinigami simply stares at her, having confusion and pity in his golden eyes. Her arms fall against her legs and she looks away. "I don't deserve your sympathy. Now please, leave me alone." The Weapon starts walking away but Kid rushes up and clasps her shoulder. She looks up in shock and the reaper says, "It's completely normal. You just don't realize why."

The blue-haired girl looks away and sobs, "What do you mean? I am not normal. I'm nothing but murderer. If you saw me change then you saw me kill that man."

His hand slides off Coraline's shoulder and admits, "Yes, I did see that. But I also saw you bury his soul in the ground."

"Well, I have to do something with them. I mean, what else am I supposed to do with all those souls?"

"_You can eat them, Coraline,"_ the voice whispers, but she ignores it.

"You make a good point, which is what intrigues me. I mean, I've never seen anyone do that with a human soul before."

She turns her head slightly in confusion and asks, "What do you mean?"

Right when he was about to answer, a rock flies in the air and nails him on the head, making him fall hard on the ground. The bluenette gasps and looks to where the stone came from, along with Kid who has a pained and annoyed expression and rubbing where the stone hit him. He finds a large crowd gathering around, all with feared and raged expressions. He discovers while soothing his head that his hat fell off earlier. "Oh no," he mutters in dismay while getting up.

Whispering grows in the crowd that soon becomes a loud chatter.

"It's those freaks."

"What should we do?"

Maybe we can get a reward."

"Hey, isn't that the boy all over the internet?"

"Hey, yeah. He's the one with the reward money on his head."

"I'd recognize those stripes anywhere!"

"Someone grab them!"

Everyone starts shouting at the duo and throwing more stuff at them. Some run up and attempt to grab the Shinigami but he side steps and throws them all away, trying hard not to do any real harm to them. He saw one man trying to seize the terrified girl so he grabs a random person coming toward him and throws the man into the other, knocking them both back and away from the girl. Coraline looks at the boy and sees him take out a black skateboard from his hand. _Who is he? Is he a freak? Like me?_

Kid jumps onto Beelzebub and offers a hand to the bluenette. "Come on!"

After a moment of thought, and dodging another man, she quickly turns her hands back to normal and grasps the hand. The reaper pulls her onto the flying board and the two riders zip into the air, leaving behind the slowly subduing circle of outcries. Coraline hugs tightly around her savior's waist as one step would send her to oblivion on the ground. Her eyes look back at the city rapidly zooming behind, feeling partly relieved to be away from everyone but confused. When the metropolis gradually becomes scarce, the Weapon looks back at Kid, glancing at his three stripes that stop evenly in the middle of his head and his bright yellow eyes that look like pure gold. She wonders if the boy in front of her is a freak, having to live a lonely life separated from everyone and unable to be close with someone. Then she thought back of when he said her curse was normal to people like her. And how her habit of burying the souls she collects intrigues him. _Who is this man in front of me?_

Seattle suddenly vanishes beneath their feet. Kid continues to fly away from it, wanting to reach a smaller town to rest before continuing traveling so the residents of Seattle don't find him while he's sleeping. Not that he needs one badly. But a sneeze from his passenger told him otherwise. He heads back to the ground and they hop off. The bluenette expects the board to get sucked back into the boy's hand, but the Shinigami merely holds it as he turns to the shivering teen. "We should find someplace to rest. You look like you're about to catch a cold."

"I know a small house nearby that we can go to," Coraline suggests.

"Alright. Lead the way."

Back on the hover board, the girl guides Kid across the land, leading him to the house she mentioned. Soon, they spot a rundown, two story house sitting alone, surrounded by a mass of trees and grass. The paints long been peeled off of the walls, leaving them a dark gray damp from the rain, the top a darker gray, and parts of the wood is rotting away. A part of the wall sticks out to give more room on the inside. Most of the windows are cracked and all the shutters are missing many wooden rails and they creak from the wind. The gutter has fallen off so the rain just waterfalls down from the different-angled roof. Kid starts shaking as his OCD starts acting up, disgusted at the asymmetrical house standing in front of him. It doesn't deserve to stand and the Shinigami would gladly rip the home to pieces, but he notes that the girl most likely lives here so he tries to keep calm.

Coraline notices his shaking but she presumes he's just cold like her so she walks up to the front door, which is missing a handle and just hangs freely on one rusted hinge. She pushes it inward and walks inside. The reaper follows and finds the inside isn't any better than the outside. Everything is covered in a thick lair of dust except for footsteps that were made most likely by the bluenette. The wooden stairs has a few steps broken and it's missing a railing. The floor creaks loudly as the boards stress from his weight. The walls have the dull blue paper still peeling off and small portions of it are missing. The ceiling has one large hole in the center, a small pile of rotted wood below, so the son of Death can see the second floor clearly and it doesn't look any better than the rest except for more dusts covering the little furniture in the room.

The traumatized girl closes the door and locks it with a block connected and a latch then strolls into what looks like the living room with uneven steps. Kid follows, feeling wary of the Weapon's instability, and finds that the living room is the only room that looks more fitting than the rest of the house. There are no holes in the walls or floor, the large, three-angled window showing the rainy outside world has only one thin crack on one panel, and there's a brick fireplace on his right with only a few red bricks missing, ashen wood inside. There's only a couch with a thick, worn quilt tousled on top in the whole room and two piles of wood next to the fireplace. The Shinigami calms down a little, seeing the room is symmetrical except for the piles of wood. He'll have to fix that later.

He watches as the Weapon grabs a few logs and tosses them in with the other burnt ones. She grabs two crude rocks that were placed on top of the stone grate and starts flicking one stone on the other toward the wood, creating small sparks upon contact. She keeps trying to light a fire with no success when Kid kneels down and says, "Here, allow me." He takes the flint stones from her hands and flicks them together with more force, creating more sparks for the fire. The log soon starts burning and a small fire starts. The reaper blows a little to help spread the flames and moves back, feeling the warmth spread across his soaked body. The bluenette sits down and pulls her legs up to her body, letting the heat hug her warmly. She closes her eyes and sighs, finally feeling at ease from all that happened today. The son of Death stares at the now-calm girl, seeing her small, warming smile that matches the fire. He doesn't see any sign of fear from earlier and wonders if it's still the same girl. Then he realizes he doesn't know her name.

"So," Kid start, interrupting the blue-haired girl's serenity. He attempts to continue but doesn't know how to ask.

Fortunately, the girl speaks instead, staring at the warping flames. "Thank you. For saving me from the mob."

He says while turning away, "Oh, uh, you're welcome."

"But, why did you?"

Confused, the Shinigami looks back and notices her sadness in the flickering orange light. "What?"

"Why did you help me?" she asks again forlornly. "You could have flown off yourself. So why would you help a freak out?"

"Because you needed help. It wasn't right to just leave you back there with all that's happening right now."

"So you saved me because it was the right thing to do?"

"Well…that's part of it."

Coraline looks at the reaper and smiles a tiny bit. She asks, "What was the other part?"

"Um, well…you're really intriguing," Kid answers, "and I wanted to get to know you more."

She looks back at the friendly fire and let's a pause come between them. After a while, she asks the question that has been poking at her, "Are you a freak, too?"

The Shinigami turns his head back and mutters, "No, I'm not."

"Then why do you have three stripes in your hair and golden eyes?"

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you," he says, also looking at the fire. The two stay quiet for a while longer, having finished asking questions for the night. Soon, the blue-haired Weapon yawns and looks at the blaze with sleepy brown eyes. Kid advises, "Why don't you get some sleep?"

She mutters, "Okay," and heads to the couch. While she covers herself with the quilt and lays her head on the cushion, the reaper walks up and says, "I've been meaning to ask you. What's your name?"

Before she closes her eyes, the girl says, "Coraline."

"Coraline," he repeats, admiring the name. "Eight characters. A perfect name."

The Shinigami starts walking back to the fireplace when Coraline says, "Promise you'll be here tomorrow?" He turns back to the girl on the couch and watches her slowly fall to sleep. After a moment of thought, he then answers, "I promise."

After he checks that the girl is asleep, Kid moves the blanket to cover her more and sits back in front of the fire. While the heat spreads across his worn face, the son of Death thinks of what has transpired, mostly the unusual soul wavelengths he sensed earlier. He's positive the large wavelength is a witch but he hasn't found any sign of her. The only reasonable solution he can think of is the witch activated Soul Protect and hurried out of the city. But then why would she release it in the first place?

Then there's Coraline.

Kid twists his head and watches her sleep soundly despite her surroundings. She doesn't make any noise as her chests rises and falls in rhythm with her breathing. There's not a single mark from what happened in Seattle left on her complexion. But he knows that the frail girl is going through something, since she keeps calling herself a freak and not wanting to hurt anyone, as if she's not in control of her body.

He triggers Soul Perception and looks again at her soul. It now looks like a calming flame and the curled spikes on the bottom are now down to four. There's no sign of it having any spasms from when he first met her. Kid can tell that she has a fiery spirit and can be quite adventurous, but the cracks riddling her soul sticks out like a sore thumb. They're all over the dark blue orb from top to bottom without any notion of shrinking. To the Shinigami, they look like scars that run deep into her. The reaper thinks they are possibly the reason why she seems so unstable. Something must have happened in her past that caused such scars, and something horrible.

He turns back to the dying flame, the wood still crackling and popping from some leftover heat, and makes a promise to himself. To stay by Coraline's side and make sure she's safe while her soul is unsound. For now, Kid will be her guardian and help her get her fiery spirit back. He smiles at the thought and lies down on the wood floor.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: New Traveling Partner**

In her makeshift bed, Coraline shifts around underneath the quilt, slowly waking up from a dream. She slowly opens her eyes and looks around. Bright light seeps through the window, illuminating the room so it looks friendlier than last night. The fire has completely died, leaving only dusty gray woods in the grate. She also finds that one pile of wood is on the other side of the fireplace. But what she doesn't see is the pale boy. The bluenette lifts up, letting the blanket slip down, and checks the entire living room. She starts to worry that the boy left her, even though he said he promised. At least, she is pretty sure he promised.

She starts feeling downcast and looks at her quilt. "I don't believe it. Why'd he leave?"

Suddenly, a wooden door slamming into a wall rings out, scaring the Cannon Weapon. She jerks her head to the door and sees the boy walking in. In his hand is a brown jagged bag and on his head is a black hat with black sunglasses on the brim. Death the Kid looks over at the couch and spots the traumatized girl. "Good morning."

"Morning," she murmurs before covering a yawn.

Kid walks into the grimy kitchen with the bag and is soon followed by Curious Coraline. She watches as the boy unpacks, revealing a small variety of food. After he collects a few pans, the blue-haired girl says, "I thought you left."

"Sorry to make you worry," he apologizes while turning toward his companion. "I was just getting some food for breakfast. As well as a new hat and glasses for me."

"How'd you even get all the food?"

* * *

At the Seattle Superstore, one window shatters and Death the Kid flies in on top of Beelzebub. Everyone stares at the boy in shock and the security guards rush in with blazing guns. Kid evades the zooming bullets while grabbing a brown paper bag and stuffing it with some food. Once that's done, he hurries to the hat department then to the glasses store. Once picking a pair of sunglasses, he looks at one mirror and says, "Hmm, not bad." Suddenly, the mirror shatters and the reaper turns around to spot a guard holding a gun at his head. "You know that is seven years of bad luck." He dodges another bullet and quickly flies out of the store. But not before getting hit in the head by a can of peaches. "Ow!"

* * *

"Found them," he says plainly.

Coraline crosses her arms and lifts an eyebrow, showing her disbelief. Kid groans and states, "I'm a wanted fugitive. Give me a break."

"Uh huh."

The reaper rolls his eyes and turns back to the rusting stove. He places a pan on top and asks, "You hungry?"

Slightly shocked, she says, "But the stove doesn't work."

"I was able to connect a gasoline tank to the stove as well as the knobs. It should be enough for this morning." He twists one knob around the faded blue-and-red ring and a small blue flame ignites underneath the grate. Seeing the feat, the Weapon smiles and agrees to breakfast. While the bacon sizzles and the eggs cooked, the bluenette looks back at the boy, again noticing the stripes and gold eyes. _If he's not a freak, then what's with the hair and eyes?_ Coraline asks herself. "Hey, um, I never got your name before."

"Yeah, that's right. My name is Death the Kid."

"Death the Kid?" she repeats confusedly. "That's a weird name."

"And Coraline isn't?" Kid retaliates.

"Touché."

"But you can call me Kid for short."

"Kid, huh?" she smiles, finding the name a little funny.

"How'd you like your eggs?"

"Oh, scrambled please. And my bacon extra crispy."

He places more bacon in the pan and starts cooking. While the two wait for breakfast to be finished, the blue-haired girl asks, "So, Kid, what's with the gold eyes and stripes in your hair? Is that some new fashion I'm not familiar with?"

"Like I said before, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Oh yeah?" She walks closer and Kid notices she's about half a head smaller, and he is pretty tall. "Try me."

"Alright." The reaper turns off the stove and turns his whole body to face his companion. "My father is the Grim Reaper, Death himself."

Coraline snorts and jokes, "Right. And I'm the daughter of King Neptune." She chuckles while walking away. But when she turns back around, she finds that Kid isn't laughing. "I see that you're in a better mood than last night." The Weapon stops and asks, "Wait, you're serious?"

"Of course." He turns back to the breakfasts.

The bluenette groans and leans against the door frame while placing her hand on her head when a headache starts growing. She says, "And I thought my arms turning into guns were weird enough. Ugh, what is wrong with my life?"

"Well, all Weapons' lives are never normal." The Shinigami picks up two plates and hands one to Coraline. "Breakfast is served. There's also orange juice and a cup if you want it."

She looks down at her food and finds that she has three pieces of bacon in the middle of the bottom plate and the eggs on the top center. _Interesting way to serve a plate,_ she thinks. The blue-haired girl then realizes what Kid just said. "Wait, 'all' Weapons?" she asks, turning around to the reaper that is in the dining room. "As in more than one?"

"Of course. There are probably hundreds of human weapons all over the world."

"Hundreds…all over…" she drops her plate and collapses on the ground, shock radiating off her large eyes. The reaper stops his eating and stares at the girl with confusion. "Um, Coraline?"

"But…I thought I was the only one," she whispers. She looks toward Kid and asks, "So there's more freaks like me out there?"

"Um, yes. But they are far from freaks."

"Then what else would you call someone who has weapons growing out of them?"

Death the Kid stops eating his eggs, looking up at the Weapon's eyes. He shrugs and says, "I don't know. A companion, a partner, a duo, a friend?"

"Friend?"

"Yes. A Meister and Weapon can't really be compatible unless their friends. Uh, Coraline?" He notices that the bluenette has a far-off look now. "Coraline?"

"It's been a long while since I had a friend," she starts ranting. "A year ago. His name was Wybie. He was a good friend despite his weird hobbies. I would still have a friend if it wasn't for that man. The man with tattoos all over his body and has daggers for hands. If it wasn't for him, I would still have a home; a family. I wouldn't be scraping garbage to survive. I would have good food on a table cooked by my dad. I would have a comfy bed to sleep in." Her body starts twitching, making Kid worry more. "I-if it wasn't for that man, I would still have a-a friend! Someone who cares for me and-and would help me through my problems! Someone w-who would joke around with y-you and p-play with you and…and…and…!" As she starts twitching more vigorously, her eyes start glowing neon purple, much to the Shinigami's shock. "Wha…?"

The Weapon falls on the floor and convulses uncontrollably. Kid shouts, "Coraline!" and runs up, dropping onto his knees. He grabs her shoulders and says, "Coraline, wake up. Wake up! What's going on? Coraline!" He gasps, sensing a soul wavelength of magnitude. Except it's coming from the bluenette. The reaper's perplexity grows even more greatly. He sees that her soul is spasming as much as she is trembling. Her soul also seems to be clashing on whether to be a dark blue or a bright purple. The two colors battle each other, both colors warping around and slowly growing before shrinking back. "What the…?"

He tries to wake her up by shaking her body a little but she continues to quiver. Kid starts to panic and he tries to think of a way to release her from the attack. "Oh man, this couldn't get any worse."

Suddenly, small containers fly into the house through multiple windows. The son of Death covers Coraline so she doesn't get hit by the flying shards and looks at one cylinder that rolled nearby. It was squirting out a white mist and the cloud quickly covers the entire room. Kid looks around, trying to figure out what is happening. When the cloud washes over him, his eyes start tearing up and he starts coughing uncontrollably. "Tear gas!" he chokes before another coughing fit erupts. He wipes his eyes to try and see clearly but more flow out.

"This is the SWAT team! We have you surrounded!" someone with a blow horn shouts.

Kid coughs and says, "You have got to be kidding me! How did they find me?" He hears someone outside order, "Alright everyone, move in!"

His eyes widen, which only bring more tears. _Ok, ok, think. How can I get out of this? I've been in worse positions before. _He thinks of a way to escape but he finds it hard with the constant coughing and teary eyes. Then he remembers his skateboard. The Shinigami calls out his board but then remembers the paroxysm girl. He looks back at her through the smoke and sees her still having her spasm. He can't just leave her to the government because, apparently, being around a Meister or Weapon is a crime itself. From what he heard, the jail for Weapons and Meisters is pretty harsh. And Coraline's life is rough as it is.

When he hears a window shatter, Kid quickly picks up the shaking girl bridal-style and hops on his floating board. One SWAT soldier rushes in wearing a gas mask and aims a gun at the Meister and commands, "Hold it right there!" He pulls on the trigger and sends a barrage of bullets. The reaper flies higher and kicks Beelzebub at the man, shouting, "Tornado flip!" He meant to hit the man in the chest but with the tear gas blinding him, he instead smacks the man in the face, breaking the mask. When he collapses, Kid jumps back on his board then flies out through the window and heads into the sky, blowing off a few hats from the members accidently. The general keeps an eye on the black mass and talking into a radio, "Send in the choppers."

As the wind blows against his suit and whisks his hair that sticks out from his hat around, the ex-Meister looks around to decide where to head off to. Slowly, the effects of the tear gas wear off as he flies. Suddenly, the sound of blades slicing the air interrupts his planning. He looks behind and spots two jet-black helicopters, slightly blurred, floating after him. He growls and starts heading to the right, away from the copters. The choppers quickly follow him and start shooting their mini-guns to bring down the target. The Shinigami swirls around the flying bullets and shouts, "Reaper Beam!" He points two fingers at the whirlybirds and two death-black rays fly out. The pilots spot the attack and try to avoid it, but the beams trash both their guns. The copters get back in control then fires two missiles.

"Don't these guys know when to give up?" Kid shouts. He attempts to change course but the rockets keep on his tail. _Heat-seeking rockets. Of course._ He devises a plan but it has a chance of causing the loss of two lives whether it succeeds or fails. But it's the only plan to take care of the missiles closing in. The reaper looks back and sees a small gap between the rockets that is slowly closing. It's now or never. He pushes his skateboard in front and dashes backwards, flying in between the homing missiles. As predicted, the two flying bombs turn around and continue chasing the Shinigami. He keeps flying backwards and eventually zips between the helicopters. The pilots follow their target until they can't see him anymore. They look at each with confusion all over their face then turn to the front, screaming as the rockets fly toward them.

The son of Death watches as the two choppers explode in large infernos. He spots two dots floating away and he sighs. "At least they got out safely." He hears another sound and looks down to see a missile flying toward him, quickly gaining toward him.

The missile explodes and covers the area in a large ball of smoke. The general smiles at the display, saying, "I think we got him."

"I don't think so, sir," one soldier differs, holding binoculars. He hands it to the leader and suggests, "Take a look."

He complies and looks at the dissipating smoke at a closer level. When it clears, he sees a transparent yellow, cartoonish skull floating and a Meister unharmed behind it. The general growls, "You've got to me kidding me."

After he deactivates Skull Shield, Kid looks down at the SWAT team and mutters, "Better get out of here while I can." He returns to flying away as fast as he can. The leader of the SWAT team commands in the radio, "Send in the birds."

In the sky, the Shinigami looks back and sighs, seeing the house and army miles behind. He looks at Coraline in his arms and sees her still twitching. He starts to worry again, seeing no change anywhere on her. He looks back ahead and wishes that she will return to the world. He also wonders what is happening in her world.

A rocket flies past him, shattering his train of thought. Kid looks back and spots three military jets soaring after him. One pilot says, "This is Commander Rocks. The target has spotted us. Moving in to intercept." The planes start moving closer to the flying man and starts firing their cannons. Kid dodges them and heads up, hoping to get behind them and disappear from their view. Unfortunately, the pilots follow his path equally fast. The reaper growls and does a corkscrew toward them. The planes separate, just as Kid planned, but they quickly return to form and resume firing. They also shoot some missiles but the reaper just dodges them and knocks one back. The pilot avoids the rebellious rocket before putting more energy in the jets. The others follow suit.

Death the Kid looks back and spots the airplanes slowly catching up. He growls and mutters, "I need more power."

The unconscious bluenette flinches and electricity surges through the Shinigami's body, making him gasp in pain and stiffen. The power moves down his body and into his skateboard through his feet. The wheels fire out more power and the riders soar across the sky at supersonic speed, much to the surprise of the Shinigami and the jet pilots. "What in the world?" one of them says.

Kid squints his eye as air rushes across them and he shouts, "What is happening?!" He tries to get in control of Beelzebub but fails. All of a sudden, the jet-wheels sputter and revert back to ordinary wheels. The reaper pants from the affect of air rushing around his mouth. Then he remembers where he is. Kicking the board, he hastily orders, "Turn back on. Turn back on. Turn back on!" Unfortunately, gravity finally grasps the two and they plummet back to the Earth. Beelzebub moves away from the reaper but he tries to grab it and make the skateboard work again. But his fingers barely touch the board as it moves away. He looks down and finds the ground yards away. Quickly turning around so he's in between Coraline and the Earth, Kid shouts, "Shit!" before smashing into the dirt in the middle of a forest. The dust clears, revealing the two teens in the middle of a small dirt crater cracked everywhere. Death the Kid coughs violently, spitting out some blood. Looking up, the teen spots his skateboard falling toward his head. He squint his eyes, ready for death to take him, but the edge of the board instead digs next to his head. After looking over at his board, he sets the blue-haired girl aside and slowly gets up. His body stiffens in pain and he coughs some more blood out. He checks over at Coraline and sees that she stopped convulsing, but her eyes are closed.

"Coraline," he strains. The Shinigami crawls over to her and leans down to her mouth, hearing a faint breathing. He relaxes a bit but still has a load of concern still left inside at seeing her soul, now back to its dark blue, is but a small fire again. While lightly slapping her face, he says, "Coraline, c'mon. Wake up. C'mon!"

She doesn't move. Suddenly, Kid hears a faint scream so he looks back in the sky and spots two planes heading in his direction. After retrieving Beelzebub, he grabs the fainted girl and drags both his and her body underneath a tree and hugs her close. When the jets pass by, the reaper lets out his breath, realizing he was holding it in, and looks back at his companion, not seeing change. After setting her back on the ground, he resumes trying to wake her. After a while, her head moves slowly and the reaper notices her eyelids moving. He sighs in relief but then all his strength he had left evaporates, making him collapse and faint from pain.

Soon, the traumatized girl moans and opens her eyes only to close them due to bright light. She rubs them and slowly lifts her stiff body up. "Oh, I feel like I fell a few thousand feet from the sky," she groans. Once her eyes adjust to the daylight, she looks around and sees the forest around her. _Wait, wasn't I in an abandoned house when I had my attack? Oh man, I just had to get an attack then. I wonder what Kid thinks about it._ She realizes something and she asks, "Wait, where's Kid?" She searches for the strange boy when she finds him lying on the ground face-down. The Weapon gasps and she scampers to him, feeling completely worried while flipping him over. She checks for any sign of life in the boy. She then starts performing CPR but it has little effect. But when she checks his pulse, the blue-haired girl finds a faint pulse and she sighs. Her relief vanishes when she realizes that they are in the middle of nowhere in a forest. Coraline sits back on the ground, wondering what to do with an unconscious, three-striped-hair boy.

The lost girl hears some faint crunching from behind. She turns and smiles, seeing people walking over. But before she rushes to get help, she spots their guns aiming everywhere. Having a bad feeling, she grabs Kid and hides behind the tree, trying to silent her breathing. The bluenette makes sure they're both hidden when the SWAT members stop in their vicinity. She then listens to their conversation.

"You think the kid was here, Brad?"

"No. I think this small crater here was made by a pot of gold that was at the end of a rainbow," the partner says sarcastically.

"Alright, no need to be sarcastic. So where do you think he went?"

"He probably headed to the nearest town since he can't use his weird skateboard to fly now that we have eyes in the sky. We'll check there."

The blue-haired girl starts struggling to hold Kid. The partners start walking away when one asks, "So what will we do when we find Mr. Death Boy?"

"I don't know. He is wanted for being a reaper. And you know what reapers do. Maybe the government will sentence him to death."

Coraline gasps, accidently alerting one soldier. "Hey, did you hear that?" He starts walking toward the tree the teens hiding behind, his gun ready to fire. Beads of sweat start sliding down the Weapon's face as she waits for the inevitable to find them and struggles to keep from dropping Kid. Just when the SWAT member was about to walk around the trunk, his partner calls, "C'mon Brad, it was probably some animal."

The soldier takes one last look then follows the other member. The traumatized girl waits for the crunching to disappear then collapses, letting Kid fall on her lap. Her voice shudders as all the frightening suspense disappears. She looks down at the unconscious son of Death with new questions in her mind. _A reaper? Seriously, who is this guy?_

Since she can't get answers from a comatose boy, Coraline decides to find a place to hide until he wakes up. She gets up, places Kid on her back, and starts trekking through the forest.

When the sun is at its highest point, Coraline, still carrying the unconscious reaper, wipes some sweat off her brow and looks up. She smiles, finding a small town in the distance. She quickens her pace and soon reaches the settlement but stops. The bluenette sees some people walking around so she walks around the edge until she enters a more rundown part and finds a hotel, the wall breaking and vines growing upward. It looks like no one's been inside for a while now. The blue-haired girl opens the front door with a loud creak and takes the first room she finds after passing the dusty and rotting lobby. She lays Kid on a bed and then sits on the sturdiest chair in the room, watching him sleep. After some time, Coraline's eyes droop and she lays her head on her arms before she, too, slumbers.

In one corner, a black spider slowly crawls around a web. It stops and looks at the duo with all its eyes.


End file.
